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Filipino-owned food delivery app, Delivery Guy, launched

DELIVERY GUY. The service has a sleek, world-class presentation – a must if it's to compete with global brands. Photo by Gelo Gonzales/Rappler

MANILA, Philippines –A new food delivery service was launched in the Philippines, Thursday, June 28, joining what's becoming a busy market that includes players such as Grab, Honestbee, and Foodpanda.

Called Delivery Guy, the service is proud to say that they're Filipino-owned, a joint venture between Neil Castillo, a guy with 20 years of experience in logistics in various business sectors mainly in finance and banking, and his wife Finina Marie Tugade-Castillo. The pair also owns the Japanese restaurant Ryu Ramen.

Their primary competitors are all foreign-owned. Grab and Honestbee are Singapore-based, while Foodpanda is based in Germany.

Users can avail of the service via the app for both iOS and Android, their website, or through their contact center, with the owners believing that there are some customers who still want that person-to-person communication.

The service promises a delivery time of 60 minutes or under, within a 3-kilometer radius. The service also features delivery tracking, including a delivery journal that informs users what stage of preparation their order is.

"Our primary competency is quality. We want the food to be hot when it's received. We want to provide the closest experience to dining in. And we want to deliver on time," said Neil Castillo. "Trust humans; don't trust animals!" Castillo joked, poking fun at the two delivery services with animal mascots, Honestbee and Foodpanda.

Currently, Delivery Guy services 35 restaurant brands, covering most of Metro Manila, expecting to ramp up the total number of partner restaurants to 150 by year's end. Service in south Manila, specifically Alabang, will begin in July.

Quality partnerships

Neil Castillo said that their strategy for restaurant partnerships leans more toward careful curation rather than having thousands of restaurants on board. "We want to limit each restaurant type to maybe about 3. For example, 3 brands serving, for example, hotdogs of a certain type, and that's it. We want maximum exposure for all our restaurant partners. That's going to be impossible with 1,000 restaurants, and be able to still market them evenly," said Castillo.

Currently, payments are cash-on-delivery with credit card terminals available by July 15.

Pricing is a little bit higher than competition, admitted Castillo. They have P100 off-zone charges for restaurants beyond the 3-kilometer radius, a 10% delivery charge, and a P75 charge for orders below P500. By comparison, GrabFood has a P49 delivery charge within a two-kilometer radius.

Castillo said that this is because they don't want to "cheapen the service". They want to have consistent service, consistent employees. To do so, they have fully employed messengers as opposed to the customary network of ad hoc messengers.

The app can be downloaded now. Each download will also contribute P5 to Project Liwanag, a social enterprise providing lighting and electricity to Aeta communities in Tarlac. For each download on Thursday, June 28, P500 will be contributed to Project Liwanag. – Rappler.com

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Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves).